A. In class on Friday when we met as a group, Mariah, Kappy, Daniel, Kady, Danielle and Stephanie were all present. The only person absent was Gina.
B. As a group, we discussed trying a few self-care strategies in the hall for students in between classes. After the practice, we would ask the students who participated how they felt. We talked about having one or two yoga poses (specifically poses that promote energy and motivation) as well as have a few minutes dedicated to a small mindfulness meditation practice.
We also talked about how each person would take some time to research articles regarding social work burn out and the importance of self-care in our field. These articles will help us with our needs assessment.
C. After talking to my supervisor this week at my practicum, he gave me some great ideas about implementing the different parts of DBT that would work great for social work burn out and self-care. For example, "improving the moment", self-soothes, mindfulness, self-compassion, etc. I will discuss this with the rest of my group next time we meet and hopefully they are reading this as well, LOL.
The rest of the assignments that we discussed (yoga in hall before class, gathering articles) are pending.
D. Everyone in our group is responsible for coming up with ideas to add to our project. We also encourage everyone to be a part of the mindfulness/yoga session in the hall, if possible. Mariah and Daniel said that they would work on some yoga poses and I (Kappy) committed to doing a quick mindfulness exercise. Next time we meet, we will give more direct assignments for each person and work on moving forward since we are now pretty clear on what we are wanting to do.
Authored by: Kappy Kindred
Before you jump to solutions, I recommend that you explore the problem more. You mentioned a review of articles on social worker burnout, which is great. I recommend starting here to figure out interventions that have been effective for addressing social worker burnout. Also, I encourage you to think more about your target population. Is it social workers in the community, social workers in the school, something else? Being specific about your target population will assist with your later intervention.
ReplyDeleteI like that you guys have self care as your topic because I am experiencing this myself A LOT this semester with all of the stuff I have on my plate. I am wondering what are the most evidence based practices for self care? Is there any research out there that you guys have found? Is there a way to systematically distribute this to practitioners so we increase the life span of practitioners?
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Chase
I really like your blog, burnout is a very serious issue in the field of social Work.Iit is critical that we teach Social Work students to not only recognize stress, but also to take action when they are experiencing stress. I believe having a self-care plan can be an excellent source of support for students, and creating this plan can be a validating experience. I never really thought of this until I was placed in my current practicum at UHHR; where I work a lot with Survivors of torture. I have been having nightmares and constant headaches. It is nice how your blog provides some really cool tips in combating this issue. Thank you again, this is super helpful.
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